Despite winning the franchise's first playoff game and once being hailed as an heir apparent to Matt Schaub, Yates sat and watched last season as Case Keenum threw seven touchdowns to zero interceptions in his first three starts before Houston's season tipped off a cliff.

With free-agent addition Ryan Fitzpatrick in the driver's seat to guide Bill O'Brien's offense, we like rookie Tom Savage's chances to make this team ahead of Yates. As McClain notes, though, Houston also looms as a possibility to cut a pair of passers if a proven veteran is released by another team.

More signal-caller news from around the league:

» One last nugget from Texans country, where position coach George Godsey says "we're not holding much back from" Savage. We're putting him in difficult situations and if he does make a mistake, we slow it down on tape, slow it down in the meeting room, and then give him the same situation the next day. Tom's done a good job of trying to handle those things throughout the nine days of practice."

» One week after NFL Media's Albert Breer reported that rookie Derek Carr will wind up pushing Matt Schaub for the Raiders' starting job, Oakland offensive coordinator Greg Olson repeated those sentiments Thursday, saying of Carr: "He is very intelligent, and he may not need to redshirt. We like his comfort level. Right away, you can see that this is not too big for him."

We're not taking Kevin's word for it, but practice observers have noted Bridgewater's accuracy during offseason sessions. The Star Tribune reported this week that Teddy already appears to be ahead of Ponder on the depth chart. The rookie also went three full open practices before throwing his first interception in front of the media on Wednesday.